15 Seconds. Andrew Gross

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СКАЧАТЬ of the car and told me I was being arrested and slapped a set of cuffs on me …”

      “Arrested? Well, you know how you can run your mouth off, Henry,” she replied in form.

      “Liz, this isn’t a joke. Just listen! And I didn’t do anything—at least not enough to get pulled out of my car. But that’s not what’s important now. The cop was killed!”

      “Killed?”

      “Yes, Liz. Right in front of my eyes, Liz. After he let me go, someone pulled their car around next to his and shot him, point-blank, right through his head. I saw the entire thing.”

      “Oh my God, Henry, that’s horrible. Are you all right?”

      “No, I’m not all right! I mean, I’m not injured. But the police believe I did it!” I told her how the other police cars had been called to the scene and all those crazy kinds of questions they were barking at me.

      “But that’s not the issue now! The guy who did it took off and I took off after him. I saw something on the car, but I couldn’t catch up. So, basically, the cops saw that I was in cuffs in the back of this dead patrolman’s car and then I fled the scene.”

      “Well, you have to go back, Henry. That much is clear. Now!”

      “I did go back, Liz. And they opened fire at me!”

      “Opened fire! My God, Henry, are you all right?”

      “Yes, I’m fine. I mean, I wasn’t hit. But my car was totally shot up. The windows shattered. I managed to escape and ditched it. But now I’m on the run. They think I did it! Not to mention my fucking prints are all over his car!”

      “Your prints?” I heard her struggling to put it all together. “How did your prints get in his car, Henry?”

      “Because I watched him being shot, Liz! While he was writing me out a summons. Because I’m a doctor and I ran back to check on him, but he was already gone. But anyone driving by at that particular moment saw me leaning into his car. Find a news station. I’m pretty sure my name is out there as a suspect.”

      “A suspect? Henry, they obviously somehow believe you were someone else. Whoever it was they were asking all those questions about. All we have to do is clear this up and … So what did you do, after you saw what happened? You called 911, right?”

      “Yes, I called 911, of course. But I also went after the car. There was something about it that caught my eye as I watched it speed away … I don’t know, maybe it was instinct, but suddenly I thought, this son of a bitch just shot someone right in front of me and he’s getting away. And I was the only one who saw it. So I went after him, but I couldn’t catch up. On my way back, I ran into one of the officers who had been hassling me earlier—trust me, Liz, this guy was a total asshole—and he spotted me behind the wheel and pulled out a gun.”

      “You didn’t give him any reason to shoot?”

      “Liz, please don’t be a lawyer here! Maybe I panicked. When’s the last time you had someone aiming a gun at you? The guy had threatened me earlier. So, yes, I pulled the car out of my lane and he opened fire and the window caved in. I mean, what was I going to do? I thought he was trying to kill me, Liz!

      “Look, I don’t know if I made the right decision or not, but I was scared for my life … So the net, net is, I basically ran from a murder scene—the murder of a cop! A cop who had me in handcuffs not ten minutes before. With my goddamn prints everywhere!”

      “Okay. Okay, Henry, let me think … Did you manage to catch the plates? On this blue vehicle you spoke of?”

      “Some of it. AMD or ADJ … It all happened so fast. But they were definitely out-of-state. South Carolina. I know that because I—”

      “Henry, listen … Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to find a way for you to turn yourself in. You had zero motive to kill this officer, right? You said he was letting you go. And you surely had no gun …”

      “For God’s sake, I don’t even own a gun, Liz! You know that. Not to mention I’d just gotten off a plane.”

      “… And it’s perfectly understandable,” she kept rationalizing, “why you panicked and felt you had to run. They were shooting at you. From what you told me I think we can easily—”

      “Liz, listen!” I interrupted her. “There’s more …”

      “More, Henry …?” she uttered haltingly. “What could possibly be more?”

      I sucked in a breath. “A lot more, I’m afraid. I can’t just turn myself in. That’s what I was trying to tell you. It gets a whole lot deeper than that.”

      CHAPTER NINE

      “You remember Mike Dinofrio—from Amherst?” I reminded her that we had all met once for drinks at the Meisner Center in Boca a couple of years back when he was in town.

      “Yeah. I think so,” she answered vaguely, not convincing me that she did. “So …?”

      “He’s a lawyer as well. From Jacksonville. We were supposed to play golf today before my conference. I had no idea where to go when I drove away from the scene, so I ditched my rental car and found a cab …”

      “A cab?”

      “Yes, Liz, a cab! I couldn’t exactly drive around in my car. Every cop in the city was looking for it. The fucking windows were blown out. And so I went there. To his house … Mike’s. To find a way to turn myself in.”

      “Okay …” I could feel her losing patience.

      “Well, I just left it, Liz—and he’s dead!”

      “Dead?” Her voice dropped off a cliff. “Your friend …?”

      In the ensuing pause, I could sense her struggling to make sense of it all—my somehow being stopped by the cop, pulled out of my car and cuffed; the officer shot dead; me, racing madly from the scene on some wild-goose chase. Then Mike …

      And to my rising worry, I felt her starting to fail.

      “Yes. He was a lawyer, Liz. I thought he could help me turn myself in. The cops were shooting at me and I had no frigging idea where to go. And now he’s got a couple of holes in his chest and, so help me, Liz, I have no idea why or what’s happening! All I know is that now two people are dead. Two people who I’m pretty sure that the only connection between was me! What the hell is going on?”

      She didn’t reply, and the longer the pause became the more it began to worry me. “I don’t know, Henry,” she finally answered me. “Why don’t you tell me just what’s going on?”

      “No, please, Liz, don’t you dare go there on me. I need you to understand. You know damn well, whatever it is, I’m not capable of that! I’m up here at a Doctors Without Borders conference. I’m supposed to be delivering a speech tonight, on my work in Nicaragua, and to play a little golf, for God’s sake! The rest …”

      “Okay, okay …” Liz paused, hearing the agitation in my voice. “Look, Henry, I’m sorry СКАЧАТЬ